...ad nauseum.

(Long post, sorry. ops: )

I felt compelled to post this, mainly just to bring to everyone's attention to, and possibly describe some of the more ridiculous things being thrown out on the fringe airwaves of late.

Yesterday evening, on Mysteries of the Mind with Alex Merklinger, the host and Fintan Dunne ("European News Director"), wove a nearly hour-long yarn about comets C/2004 F4 Bradfield, C/2001 Q4 NEAT, and C/2002 T7 LINEAR, and the purported SOHO "blackout" over the weekend.

(Program archive available here; direct Windows Media stream to the show in question here.)

This was one of those "everything including the kitchen sink" shows, where anything and everything was thrown on the table, including a direct reference to the Bad Astronomer himself.

Based upon this webpage, which aside from a rudimentary orbital diagram of the inner solar system is written entirely in Japanese, and an article here (scroll down just past halfway, left-side column), where Dunne is allegedly an "analyst"... Merklinger and Dunne have concluded that the SOHO was purposefully taken offline over the weekend "to scrub 16 hours of coverage," and hide some fantastic electrical interaction (a la McCanney "Plasma Discharge Model") between Bradfield and/or NEAT and/or and the Sun. Additionally, they claim (as McCanney has often) that NASA has deliberately altered as well as "faked" portions of the imagery they've provided.

Now, ordinarily, I'd laugh off some of the ridiculous claims that are presented on the woo-woo fringe, but this show just went too far. At one point in the program, Merklinger actually advocated hacking into NASA's web sites on two separate occasions in order to secure the alleged "true" images, which he claims NASA has chosen to hide from the public. Whether hyperbole or not, suggesting that people attempt to hack into a Federal computer network is serious, and I can't believe how all this nonsense seems to be growing from empty rhetoric to instances like this. Can it get much worse?

Merklinger and Dunne throughout the program seem to enjoy fawning all over James McCanney, and while I certainly don't profess to be well-versed in areas astronomy and physics, as a veteran skeptic it really doesn't require rocket science to note the transparency of the allegations presented, as well as the cosmological ignorance displayed on the program by AM and FD.

If you're curious to hear this entire segment of the program, refer to the URLs I posted above and fast-forward to approximately 1:14:00 into the archived program. I've compiled a couple of transcript excerpts below, mostly for comedic value, including the reference made to BA.

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From approx 1:27:00, where they're discussing the Japanese web page above, as well as the other site I posted:

AM: Fintan, did you just see the um, the one... graphic, it's going on now, can you see it?

FD: Go... go on... yes?

AM: And... of the comets... and we go through the tail... of one.

FD: WOW! [inaudible]

AM: Right there.

FD: It's uncanny, Alex! I was just going to relay that while you're off there spotting that and I was going to say "I'm not going to drag Alex off going back to look at the tail of the comet again..."

AM: Now, when, when is that supposed to happen?

FD: Oh there's a ball there, yeah.

AM: When, when is that supposed to happen?

FD: Gulp. (laughs)

AM: What?

FD: Gulp. G-U-L-P.

AM: Gulp? Yeah. Do you know when?

FD: It's supposed to happen, gulp, on my birthday, on the Pope's birthday, the 18th of May.

AM: Is that right?

FD: And that's the very day we were discussing that, the huge drop in the [something I couldn't decipher] timewave takes place on the region, the one that made the Sears Tower today look like a little insignificant blip.

AM: Yes.

FD: It's a massive drop, uh, it kicks off on that date which it is, um, the 18th of May.

AM: Well, I don't know what can happen.

FD: This is... this is um, T7

AM: Yeah.

FD: Comet T7. As you can see, and, people can look at that, click on the word "Course" in the um, feature on breakfornews.com and take a look at the graphic there, three-dimensional...

AM: Jeez!

FD: ...we quite clearly go through the tail of Comet T7

AM: Yeah. Now I don't know what that means to us, I do know that McCanney said, if we had gone through let's say any of the major comet's tails...

FD: Hmm.

AM: ...it can just wreak havoc...

FD: Yep. And, uh, lemme, let's see...

AM: ... you're saying that these comets... are good-sized comets.

FD: Yes.

AM: Oh.

FD: Good-sized comets, well certainly, the one that went through over the weekend was a big comet, that was big, no two ways about that because ...

AM: Mmm-hmm.

FD: ... the size of it... if you ignored the fact that the comet tail wasn't too big because because of foreshortening...

AM: Yeah.

FD: ...you can quite clearly see, uh, the images are in that graphics section on breakfornews...

AM: Jeez!

FD: ...there were all the images there, by clicking on the things labeled One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven different images there...

FD: The head of the comet was bigger than NEAT, definitely bigger than NEAT...

AM: Wow. Now...

FD: ...look where you can see quite clearly, you can...

AM: Yeah.

FD: ... you can make a measurement of it and it comes out roundabout 1.7 times the size of Comet NEAT, the head was.

AM: What, uh, Fintan, uh, do you know or do you think the comparison is, let's say, of Comet LINEAR, compared to our moon?

FD: (pause) Uh, well this comet, I don't know now the size of T7, I haven't looked into T7...

AM: Yeah.

FD: ...with May being a long way off... (laughs)

AM: Yeah, right.

FD: But uh, I would say that this one, uh, Bradfield, that went through, uh, definitely would give Mercury a run for it's money, the one that went through. Uh...

AM: Really!

FD: ...over the weekend. Yep.

AM: (Sighs)

FD: And also, you, uh, if you accept the McCanney theory on the formation of these, uh tails...

AM: Yep.

FD: ...comet tails, you can't explain them away by being a huge bulk of sublimating ice...

AM: (Laughing) No, I don't think so, either that or we're going to get cold winds...

FD: Yeah...

AM: ...that's about it.

FD: So, uh, you can't maintain that... that the reason...

AM: Wow.

FD: ... the head of the comet looks big is from a massive cloud of sublimation taking place, there's not, there's quite a narrow, focused, small area around the head of the comet where the, uh, water creation is taking place, and...

AM: Okay...

FD: ...pretty much you're seeing, that real comets may be roundabout...

AM: Yeah...

FD: ...70% the size of the observed one, so that would make that big, bigger than Comet NEAT. Um...

AM: Well I don't want to, um, alert or anything else, you, but as I watch this, it stops right about now, and if you keep following the track of Mercury, and the track of... I think it was the Bradford comet, if they continued that for three or four more frames, if Mercury doesn't hit the comet, it's going to come awfully close. Do you see what I'm talking about? Ok now, see...

FD: I...

AM: ... see, right now, it looks like Bradford, or it could be NEAT -- it's crossing the plane of, it's Comet NEAT.

FD: Okay... yes...

AM: It's crossing the plane or will cross the plane that Mercury is on, but if you just, if we had three or four more frames, five more frames...

FD: You can tell.

AM: ...it would show that it's going to come so close to hitting it... and especially if Comet NEAT is that big, um, it's got to be at least half to three-quarters the size of Mercury.

FD: Yeah. Well, uh, that view can be deceptive because we're, we've got a 3-D view there, but only from one angle...

AM: True, true.

FD: ... so you've got foreshortening that makes those two look like they're coming close together.

AM: Okay.

FD: They're not actually coming too close, the one that is definitely, uh, coming close, is the uh, the T7.

AM: Yes.

FD: The one...

AM: With us.

FD: ...that's coming on the 18th of May...

AM: Yeah.

FD: ... and you can actually go to uh, JPL's NEO, uh near... earth orbit...

AM: Yeah.

FD: ...uh, program, and you can search for T7 there, and you can get the um, full scaleable, scrollable, rotatable 3-D graphic version of that...

AM: Wow.

FD: ... search for T7 and take a look at how close it comes to Earth on that uh, day. It would depend on the angle and length of the, uh, comet tail...

AM: Yes, right.

FD: ... at that time as to whether or not we'd have any effects, but I just mention that in passing...

AM: Jeez.
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And now to the section where BA is mentioned (approx 1:45:00)

AM: Now that's an example of the incompetency that we have in this country. We go to something like the SOHO site, go to NASA's site, and these people... obviously they're not as dumb as they appear. But they think we are. So they're going to come up with these inane excuses, like this, the, this snowstorm last year with Comet NEAT, and then Jim McCanney called up a friend of his, and the guy said 'Snow? It's not snowing here!', and he drove up to where the, uh, I guess where the observatory is, or wherever they run, y'know, and check on the satellite, and it wasn't snowing anywhere... so, absolute bold-faced lie. But does
anyone follow up on it? No, just us. And, not.. not only us, because I think there are other screwballs as bad as we are, but at least the main news services... they are so afraid to step on the master's toes, that they're not going to say anything.

FD: Yeah, yep. Nevertheless, you know, we are having an effect all of the people...

AM: Yeah.

FD: ... who are on to this, and are e-mailing in to NASA are having an effect, I mean otherwise they wouldn't have, for example have gone to the trouble of attacking our web site last year...

AM: That's right.

FD: ...over the first thing, there was a lovely article on space.com, and employing people like Phil Plait in order to try and, uh, debunk or undermine the credibility of, uh McCanney's um, Plasma Discharge Model.

AM: Yeah.

FD: So, we're having an effect on them, uh, I wish it was more, uh, obviously there's limits to the effects we're having on them...if they can still get away with this, uh, with... y'know, PR spin, it'll do as a piece of PR spin, with me they lost an awful lot of credibility, uh, over the weekend. An awful lot of credibility.

AM: Yeah but, they deserve it.

FD: Yep. Yeah, couldn't agree... couldn't... happen to a nicer bunch of guys.

AM: ...this...

AM: This organization is absolutely filled with incompetence, or, they try to be so cute that they're thinking, as I said, the rest of us are idiots. So, I don't know what the next step for all of us would be, they do control it, unless we can get somebody to hack into it, and then put pictures up on site, and publish pictures all over the world as to what really is happening.
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If you made it all the way through this, you deserve a medal.

Unbelievable! ](*,)

*Edited for formatting.

Okay, I must admit that I had to skip over some of that, so no medal for me.

But they called the Japanese diagram 3 dimensional! What do they think a 2-D diagram is supposed to look like. And have they ever seen the Perseid metero shower, or even heard of it. ](*,)

Have there been any astronomical events in the last decade or so that woo-woos haven't gone crazy about? :-k

You're completely forgiven. Imagine how painful it was to transcribe...

Actually, I believe the "3-D" reference transcribed above may have been addressing this animation linked from Dunne's page. To really get the full context, it'd be helpful (but perhaps not terribly wise) to listen to the entire program segment. (I sure as heck wasn't going to transcribe it all! )

Perhaps. However, between a few excitable people, a few charlatans, and the magical speed by which nonsensical garbage may travel on the Internet, I think we're going to be in an extended, frenzied peak. :-?

I looked at that graphic due to stuff on the GLP site. The Japanese graphic is weird; for one thing, the planets orbit the Sun clockwise, when counterclockwise is the standard convention.

Second, the animation is indeed two dimensional. It shows us going through the tail of T7, I think. But when you use 3D software, which I have, you see that the comet is tens of millions of miles from the ecliptic plane when that happens. In other words, the animation is shown as if you are looking down (or up) on the solar system. This compresses the third, z, direction. So when the comet is at the same x and y coordinates as the Earth, more or less, it is way off the ecliptic plane. In projection, it makes it look like we pass through the tail of a comet. In fact, it was millions of miles away from us.

When someone makes a mistake as simple and as egregious as that (and bases it on an animation from a Japanese press site which is known to have errors!) I wouldn't put too much stock in anything else they say.

My own rules of politeness forbid me from saying much more, but what they are saying is disgusting.

Yeah, but you have to say that Phil, cause NASA's paying you. (By the way, can you send me a form to sign up, I'm still looking for the Paid NASA/Govermental Debunker dept.)

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Howling from the Shadows

It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. --- JayUtah

You can't reason an irrational person out of an irrational belief. --- Noclevername

Apollo: The History and the Hoax
Enter the World of Athran

As I watched both the GPB launch/deployment and Soyuz/ISS docking live on NASA TV yesterday, I couldn't help but think, yet again "gee, if NASA is supposed to be involved in such a huge 'cover up,' they're sure doing a lousy job."

So, they're saying that we're going to go through the tail of a comet on May 18, and presumably all life on Earth will cease? The way all life on Earth ceased last May, when whatever-it-was that was supposed to happen, didn't happen?

Okay. Got it.

[marks calendar]

#-o

Hehe. Well, I'll spare you the pain of having to endure the entire program; they never claimed any specific effect on Earth due to passing through the tail of a comet... but aside from that, you're spot on.

http://jmccanneyscience.com/
Ah, NASA, those lying forks!!

I love that "time out for this public service announcement"--in the midst of his raving paranoia, he spares a thought for Everyman. Rather sweet, actually.

"gives mercury a run for its money"

Yeah, right. Who are these nuts kidding!

So, I suppose every annual meteor shower we have this spring/summer will actually be tails of comets that are millions of kilometers distant from us. ](*,)

And things don't look too good for SOHO either. After the problems this weekend, they lost (I believe they lost) their guide star, and SOHO went into an emergency solar reacquisition early yesterday morning. LASCO, CDS, EIT, UVCS; all went into safe mode and their aperture doors shut. EIT and CDS are now back, but LASCO and UVCS may not be back until sometime today. I hope we aren't seeing the beginning of the end, but then again, it's way past it's scheduled lifetime.

McCanney's worst was last Thursday. I understand he held his weekly radio show and never mentioned Bradfield, even though it was already on LASCO images. He apparently didn't even know it's name/designation until Saturday, claiming NASA was hiding it from the public.

It's a pretty sad state of affairs when a few people promote deliberate misinformation, all in the supposed name of truth. Sometimes it seems we haven't progressed any further than the Haley comet scares of 1910/11.

It truly is a shame.

Right.

He was far too busy during last week's show badmouthing NASA and the "tier 1 scientists", claiming the government keeps hacking into or blocking his website and e-mail, describing yet again just how wrong mainstream astronomy/meteorology/science are, promoting his "Amateur Astro Project", and regurgitating the same old garbage.

[quote="J

and aligned electrically with Mercury on may 6)

[/quote]

What does this mean?

Also what 'activity' in the comet tails are NASA hiding ?

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These accusations of the government censoring woo-woo websites always make me laugh. If the government is doing this then why are the sooo many of these sites out there. From my experience it seems that any time I do a web search on a scientific topic I get a host of woo-woo sites mixed in with the legitimate ones.

The government organization in charge of website blocking doesn't seem to be doing a very good job. They ought to be fired!

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"A mystic is a person who is puzzled before the obvious but who understands the nonexistent." -- Elbert Hubbard

This refers to James McCanney's claims about comets not being "dirty snowballs," and his assertions that, under proper circumstances, we can see electrical discharges and such between comets and the sun and/or planets.

McCanney maintains that "sunward spikes" of electrical activity are visible from comets when "properly aligned" with a planet's axis, because there is some sort of plasma interaction with a "non-uniform electical field" surrounding their nuclei, which, he believes act as some form of capacitor, storing and discharging energy gathered from the positive charge of the solar wind. Ugh.

Beats me. I think the main assertion was that NASA took SOHO offline so that we wouldn't be able to see the aforementioned "sunward spikes."

Yeah. McCanney does this same rigamarole two or three times a week now, so regularly that you can set your watch to it.

But, OTOH, he's now interjecting things like:

Hehe. Riiiiiiight.